Iditarod

Edgewater resident John McCary is looking forward to a three-day bicycle ride in sub-zero temperatures, toting a stove and other gear.On Feb. 16, McCary will join about 200 hardy souls in the fifth annual Iditabike Race, a spin-off of the Iditarod dog-sled races.McCary, the president of the Annapolis Bicycle Club, will attemptto conquer Alaskan landmarks such as Knik Lake, Big Susitna, Rabbit Lake and Big Su during the 200-mile race.Athletes from Europe, the Soviet Union, Canada and the United States will test their mettle in three separate categories -- the triathlon (biking, skiing, and running)

When Dr. Carl E. Rogge got to Alaska for his first Iditarod race in 1988, he found the rough-and-tumble sled dogs weren't much like the nice little doggies he was treating back home in Severna Park."

When veterinarian Carl E. Rogge takes his March vacation, he goes north. Far, far north, to where the temperatures might climb to 10 degrees, glaciers loom over the landscape and the dogs look nothing like the suburban canines he leaves behind. He likes to golf, fly-fish and sail, but this is his other hobby: He is part of an army of volunteers at the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the grueling 1,200-mile race through the Arctic wilderness, checking the physical condition of the 45-pound racers.

NOME, Alaska -- Yesterday at 3: 07 p.m. Alaska Standard Time, Baltimore musher Dan Dent drove his dog team under the Iditarod Trail race finish line arch, placing him in 63rd position with a finishing time of 14 days, 5 hours, 7 minutes, 28 seconds. The Iditarod 2000 is Dent's first completion of "The Last Great Race." He was forced to scratch in 1999 after suffering deep bite wounds while attempting to break up a fight between members of his dog team. Looking relatively rested after the 1,131-mile journey from Anchorage, Dent was full of smiles and kind words for those who came out to greet him at the finish line.

Dan Dent's dreams of completing the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race have come to a bloody end on a frozen river northwest of Anchorage.The Baltimore investment adviser's hands were badly bitten on Sunday, just nine hours into the race, when he tried to break up a fight among his dogs. He resumed the race, but Iditarod officials saw by Monday evening that he had lost most of the use of his hands, and forced him out. He was then flown back to an Anchorage hospital for treatment."It was a pretty ugly end to a good story," Dent said yesterday from his hospital bed.An Iditarod rookie, Dent, 57, was running last among 55 mushers in the grueling 1,100-mile race from Anchorage to Nome.

D'Antoine Webb dreams of one day joining the CIA. Or maybe the FBI.But first the 14-year-old North Baltimore boy is going to ride on a dog sled, in Alaska, for the start of next month's 1,100-mile Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome. And that's no dream.D'Antoine, a student at Pimlico Middle School, was the winner last night of the Baltimore Police Athletic League's "I Did It for PAL" essay contest.At a crowded and stifling, but very happy ceremony last night at Baltimore Police Headquarters, he was chosen from among 121 contestants for a free trip to Anchorage and a place on a dog sled to be driven by musher and PAL board member Dan Dent.

The knifing winds. The numbing cold. The snapping dogs. The foreboding darkness. For Daniel F. Dent, these are the recollections of the Iditarod dog sled race - or perhaps another day on Wall Street. Dent, who twice participated in the storied Iditarod, is also a Baltimore money manager with one of the best-performing funds in the country. Like an ad campaign for a national bank that asks what can investors learn from events outside the world of finance, Dent said that principles he has absorbed from the grueling 1,100-mile race from Fairbanks to Nome, Alaska, have made him a better money manager.

Dan Dent knows he's probably too old, too heavy and too tall for big-time dog sled racing. And his ZIP code is all wrong.But never mind. The 57-year-old, 6-foot-4, 205-pound financial manager from Baltimore is about to set out on the adventure of his life -- a 1,100-mile dash alone across the frozen Alaskan wilderness in the famously grueling Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome.The 27th running of "The Last Great Race" begins Saturday.Dent hasn't got a prayer of winning. He's raced only three times, and never longer than 300 miles.

Toughest Race on Earth: Iditarod 10 p.m. [Discovery] In the second episode, the mushers are crossing the Alaska Range. Several competitors report seeing visions of Tina Fey. They keep their spirits up by constantly repeating the mantra: "You betcha."

More than a year has passed since musher Al Hardman and his team of huskies finished Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.So the Yak visited the musher at his home in Michigan to see how he and his dogs were doing.There was some sad news. Luka, 9, his top leader, died last August. Hardman was heartbroken."I really bonded with that dog," he said. "She always knew exactly what I wanted. I really miss her."The good news is that in May, two other females gave birth to 11 healthy puppies."This is Bear," said Hardman, introducing a puppy to the Yak. "He's the only one I've named so far. He looks like a polar bear; that's why I named him that."